1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image capture apparatus and a method for controlling the same, in particular, to an image capture apparatus that has a functionality to track a subject, and a method for controlling the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, in cameras with a solid-state image sensor, a functionality to detect a given subject from a frame of a moving image, such as a live view image, and to track the subject in a subsequent frame has been put to practical use. Cameras having such a subject tracking functionality can detect the location of the subject in the image so as to appropriately perform an automatic focus adjustment and an automatic exposure control on the subject. For example, a camera has been commercialized that detects a human face and sets it as a tracking target, thereby continuously focusing on the detected face. Further, there are also cameras that reset a tracking target, if they have lost a subject during tracking of the subject, and start the tracking again.
For example, Patent Document 1 (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2011-27847) discloses a camera that, if it has detected human faces in an image, automatically selects the largest face of the detected human faces as a tracking target.
Further, Patent Document 2 (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2009-124565) discloses a camera that performs a face detection operation, then sets a tracking target, and starts a tracking operation, the camera having a functionality to perform a face detection operation again, and to reset a tracking target, if it has lost the tracking target.
Both Patent Documents 1 and 2 teach that, if no face is detected, the previously-set subject in an automatic focus detection area is set as the tracking target.
However, in the conventional technologies disclosed in Patent Documents 1 and 2, no countermeasure against false face detection is proposed, so that a falsely detected area may be taken as a face detection area to be tracked.